The Chosen Ones
John 15:9-17
“You did not choose me but I chose you.”
When you were in grade school, were you the one doing the choosing or
were you one of those not chosen until the last pick for the softball
games or the dance teams? Did you dream of being a football star or a
cheerleader, knowing that was never even in the realm of possibility?
I happened to be one of those timid, uncoordinated and very small
little girls who were only chosen very near to the end of the choosing,
if not the last one chosen for anything remotely athletic that required
any physical coordination. I didn’t have a clue as to how you
became one doing the choosing rather than one who was not chosen. I
didn’t have a clue as to how you moved up the ladder of the chosen ones.
As I grew older, thanks be to God, I learned that I had other
gifts. I learned I didn’t have to excel at everything. And yet at
times, I was and still am a little envious of those who so effortlessly
sing and dance and hit a softball clear out of the park. Maybe
that’s why I don’t watch “Dancing with the Stars”.
When Clifford and I had been married for a while and had young
children, we decided we needed to so some things without including our
boys. So…we signed up for ballroom dance lessons at the area rec
center. We arranged for a babysitter to come on Wednesday
evenings for the eight weeks that the classes would be held. Now, I
would like to tell you that as a thirty-something married woman, I
blossomed into a dancing wonder. Unfortunately, that isn’t quite
what happened.
During the first lesson, the instructor was quite nice. We moved around
making little boxes with our feet. Of course, Clifford was
propping me up as he offered kind suggestions about stepping on other
peoples’ feet.
By the second class, the teacher became much more demanding. She began
to choose partners to dance with her. Now you would think she would
choose those who were really struggling so she could help them. But
instead, she chose the best dancers. You guessed it! She
chose Clifford right off the bat. I could have handled sitting on
the side on a plastic bucket chair in that huge intimidating gym. I had
experience doing that! But that was not her game plan. Instead
she dragged a huge plastic garbage can onto the dance floor. She
instructed me that I was to practice dancing around the trash can!
As we drove to the class the next week, I said to Clifford, “I can’t do
this”. So for six weeks, we went out to eat or to a movie on
Wednesdays, but my dance lessons were over forever.
I think all of us have areas in our lives where we feel we are the
“ones not chosen”. We all have times when we feel we don’t quite
measure up. We all have times when we don’t feel very lovable, not even
very likable. Perhaps that is why this sentence in the gospel is
so incredibly reassuring, “You did not choose me but I chose you.” Our
Lord doesn’t just choose a few of us—the cream of the crop, the best
dancers, the smartest, the most appealing. He chooses everyone in
spite of our flaws, even when no one else seems to care. He
chooses all of us all of the time.
In this same passage, he gives us instructions on what we are to do with that amazing gift of unqualified love. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
What that means to me is that we do our best to see good in other
people. It means that we look for goodness especially when we are
blinded by the flaws and shortcomings of others. It means we make
a special effort to see the gifts that are often overlooked in the ones
not chosen.
There is a prayer in the back of Forward Day by Day that I read every morning. It has been published there for a long time. It is about choosing and about loving:
Give me strength to live another day;
Let me not turn coward before its difficulties
or prove recreant to its duties;
Let me not lose faith in other people;
Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of
ingratitude, treachery, or meanness;
Preserve me from minding little stings or
giving them;
Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so
honestly and fearlessly that no outward
failure can dishearten me or take away the
joy of conscious integrity;
Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see
good in all things;
Grant me this day some new vision of thy truth;
Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness;
And make me the cup of strength to suffering
souls; in the name of the strong Deliverer, our
Only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We, the chosen ones, are chosen and called and appointed to go
and bear fruit, fruit that will last. We are to love one another
as we have been and are loved. And bearing this fruit won’t be
burdensome. In fact, it will bring us joy. It will bring us
joy that will be complete. Our lives won’t be perfect.
Those we are called to love won’t be perfect but the fruit will not
spoil. It will last and it will sustain us.
That fruit will sustain us and we and everyone else will all finally know that we are the chosen ones.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
The Rev. Betsy Porter
St. James’ Episcopal Church
Eureka Springs, AR
Easter VI
May 17, 2009